Popular Culture and Immigration Issues

American Studies

The link between popular culture and immigration has been the subject of numerous studies for years. Television and print news sources in the United States have explored popular culture and issues of immigration in different ways. The popular culture landscape has been characterized by a multidirectional public discourse regarding immigration and Americanness. As a result, popular culture has continued to play a major role in creating and defining key events and moments in the history of immigration. Due to the perceived link between these two concepts, popular culture has been integrated into immigration studies. In their book, Immigration and American Popular Culture, Rubin and Melnick contend that popular culture has traditionally been a critical collective place for issues relating to immigration politics and ethics. This paper examines the veracity of this statement based on the perceived link between popular culture and immigration.

Popular Culture and Issues of Immigration

According to Rubin & Melnick, “popular culture… has long been an important collective processing site for questions concerning the politics and ethics of immigration” (p.1). This implies that popular culture has continued to be the platform upon which issues of immigration are evaluated. These authors further contend that popular culture has been the platform on which Americanness and otherness are constantly evaluated and determined. The role of popular culture in answering questions relating to the ethics and politics of immigration is depicted in movies and television shows that highlight the immigrant experience. For instance, Men in Black II examines the immigrant experience by invoking certain frameworks and stories in relation to the latest immigration culture.

To support their view that popular culture is the arena for evaluating and negotiating issues on immigration, Rubin & Melnick contend that it is impossible to separate immigration from popular culture (p.3). This is primarily because immigrants and the American popular culture have essentially developed each other. This is evident in the fact that immigrants were at the very core of popular culture production and imagery. Since immigrants played a critical role in the development of popular culture, it is nearly impossible to separate immigration from American popular culture. Rubin & Melnick postulate that immigrants have shaped the production of popular culture, consumed the American popular culture, and are used as the subject matter of popular culture imagery and production.

The Veracity of the Claim

Based on insights obtained from this course and course materials, I agree with Rubin and Melnick’s claim on the role popular culture plays in providing answers to questions on the politics and ethics of immigration. This claim is supported on grounds that a strong link exists between immigration and popular culture. As evident in their book, Rubin and Melnick provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that immigrants are not only consumers of popular culture, but have also shaped its production and imagery. This implies that the American popular culture would not be what it is currently if immigrants did not enter the country. Through their entry into the United States, immigrants have continued to play a critical role in shaping conceptions and the production of the American popular culture. Consequently, it is impossible to have a clear understanding of the politics and ethics of immigration without looking at the American popular culture. Popular culture serves as the arena with which issues of immigration can be better understood and resolved.

Popular culture is a term that essentially refers to ideas, images, attitudes, perceptions, and other phenomena portrayed within the mainstream culture. The phenomena are reflections of the shared ideals between different groups of people in the country. In most cases, popular culture is produced and portrayed by diverse media outlets and includes food, fashion, music, and other forms of entertainment. Diverse media outlets and different forms of entertainment have been at the center of understanding immigration issues based on their portrayal of the American popular culture. For example, movies have acted as key sources of information to enhance an understanding of immigration issues through their portrayal of popular culture. Over the past few decades, science fiction movies have become major sites for understanding immigration issues as they portray the popular culture by exploring issues of “Americanness” and “otherness”. For instance, one of the popular themes in these movies is the threat of alien invasion, which is used as a metaphor for immigrant newcomers.

The role of popular culture as a key processing site for immigration issues is also supported by immigrant cultures and experiences in the United States. Immigrant cultures were imported along with immigrants and mixed with the American culture to create the popular culture. This happened through a process of assimilation and acculturation. Immigration patterns in modern American history and their influence on popular culture can be traced to the 1850s. Census data between 1860 and 1920 showed that every aspect of American life and culture was transformed by immigrants as one in seven Americans was foreign-born (Daniels, p.2). In her book, The Book of Unknown Americans, Henriquez portrays the experiences of immigrants as they migrated and settled in the United States through various characters. The experiences of one of the characters, Quisqueya Solis demonstrates assimilation and the influence of immigrants on popular culture. Solis migrated to the United States from Venezuela and wanted to feel a sense of belonging in the neighborhood. She assimilated into the then-American culture but also brought her own cultural practices, which influenced the popular culture (Henriquez, p.13). As immigrants settled in the U.S. they brought their cultural practices and mixed them with the Native American culture. Consequently, they shaped the public discourse on “Americanness” and “otherness” by influencing conceptions of racial and national identity.

One of the immigrant cultures that depict the inseparable link between immigration and the American popular culture is the African American or Black culture. African American culture has shaped popular culture through the concept of blackface, which has permeated conversations regarding race and national identity. African American culture has played a major role in shaping American popular culture by influencing public discourse of racial and national identity. According to Rubin & Melnick, blackface contributed to the emergence of a popular culture in America that focuses on racial-ethnic identity by promoting the integration of complex racial identity challenges into entertainment.

Secondly, the Native American culture is an example of how popular culture is shaped by immigration. Prior to European settlement in the United States, Native American culture was the dominant culture. However, immigration brought new dominant cultures to the country. In essence, immigration gave birth to the emergence of new cultures that became dominant over the Native American culture. As a result, American life and popular culture are defined by the traditions and lifestyles of dominant cultures brought by European settlers. Native American culture became marginalized though it still plays a minimal role in shaping popular culture in the United States.